The Uniformat provides a standard and comprehensive structure that covers the scope of work for all types of building projects.

The term project cost refers to the total sum the project in question will cost the company.

Those could include the costs associated with the project direct and indirect costs, risks, project finance and other development costs.

Therefore, it is important that the Cost Plan is structured around a progressive breakdown structure like the UniFormat numbering system that enables elaborating the cost plan as it evolves during the project life cycle stages.

This systems approach uses a hierarchical structure of cost elements, beginning at Level 1 with basic systems, such as Substructure, Shell, and Interiors, and proceeding to successively more detailed subdivisions of these systems at Levels 2 through 4.

For example, by the final concept design phase, the design team and estimator may have Level 4 information on Substructure, but only Level 2 detail for Interiors.

Should this be a requirement, then the Uniformat can be expanded to one more level, level 5.

For example, A101001 Wall Foundations can be further detailed to A10100101 Continuous Foundation and A10100102 Foundation Walls.

In addition, another level of detail can be added for which it will be based on the MasterFormat which is used for organizing building-project specifications and detailed cost estimating data.

PMWeb cost database module allows creating multiple cost databases to capture the cost rates for each Uniformat level.

For example, there will be separate cost databases that will be based on Uniformat level 1, Uniformat level 2, Uniformat Level 3, Uniformat level 4, Uniformat level 5 and even the MasterFormat.

The cost database for each item should also include a complete description of the scope of work covered by the cost item.

Since the cost estimate will become the basis for establishing the project budget, PMWeb allows also assigning the predefined budget cost breakdown structure level identification to each cost item.

This will expedite the process of generating the budget from the approved cost plan as the cost breakdown structure will group all cost items that are linked to a specific cost breakdown structure record.

The file import option allows mapping the MS Excel fields into the appropriate PMWeb cost database fields.

This will help in avoiding duplicating the effort for creating cost databases.

There is no restriction on the number of estimate versions that can be created for a project.

This is important as there will be different cost plans that will be developed during the project life cycle stages.

For each estimate version, cost items will be added from the PMWeb cost databases to come with the cost estimate for the desired scope of work.

The cost estimate could include cost items from different Uniformat levels cost databases depending on the design detail level.

To achieve this, each Cost Plan line item needs to be linked to the relevant Project Budget cost breakdown structure (CBS) level, as detailed above, as well as the relevant Project Schedule work breakdown structure (WBS) level and activity.

It should enable the company to break down the financial details about the expenses and purchases needed to make the project a success.

Construction Line Item Cost Breakdown